Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-11-04
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
The Weskly DisCour,es Of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: "FOrgiveness Before
SundOwn.o

What pillow embroidered of all colors
bath the dying day. The cradle Of clouds
from Which the sun rises is beautiful enough,
but It is surpassed by the many colored
mausoleum in which at evening it is buried.
Sunset among the mountainsl 1t almost
takes ones breath away to recall the scene.
The long shadows stretching over the plain
made the glory of the departing light on the
Uptop crags and struck aslant through the
ieIage the more transpicuous. Saffron and
Sold, purple and crimson commingled. All
Jbe castles of cloud in conilagraton Burn
ing Moscows on the sky. Hanging gardens
or roses at their deere st blush. Banners of
Napors, red as IL from carnage in the battle
OF the elements The hunter among the Adj
rondacks and the Swiss villager among the
Alps Know what is a sunset among the
mountains. After a storm at sea the roll
ing grandeur into which the sun goes down
TO hathe at nightfall is something to make
weird and splendid dreams out of for a
lifetime, Alex ander Smith in his poem COM
pares the sunset to " the barren beach of hell y
but this wonderful spectacle Of nature makes
me think of the FURNISHED wall of heaven
fanl IN prison writing my text remember
some OF the gorgeous sunsets among the
mountains OF Asia Minor, and how he had
often seen the towers of Damascus blaze in
the close Of the Oriental DAYS, and he flashes
out that memory in the text when he says:
Let not thu sun go down upon your wrath "
=, sublime and all suggestive duty for people
then and people now Forgiveness before
Sundown. He who never feels the throb of
Indignation is imbecile He who can walk
among the injustices of the world, inflicted
upon himself and others, without flush Of
cheek or flash of eye or agitation of nature,
Is either i'll sympathy with wrong or semi
ldlotic When Ananias the high priest, Or
dered the conStabes of the court room to
Smite Paul in the mouth Panl fired up and
hal ito thon @Ia,,
wall in the sentence Immediately before
my text Paul commands the Ephesians "Be
ye angry and sin not" 1t all depends on
what you are mad at, and how long the feel
ing lasts whether anger is right or wrong.
Life is full Of exasperations Saul after
David, Succoth after Gideon, Korah after
Moses, the Pasquins after Augustus, the
Pharisees after Christ, and every one has had
his pursueTs, and we are swindled or belied or
mlSrepreSented or prosecuted or in some way
wrouged, and the danger is that healthful
indignation shall become baIeful Spite and
that our feelings settle down into a pro-
longed outpouring of temper displeaSing to
God and ruinous to ourselves, and hence the
important injunction Of the text 81 let not
the sun so down upon your wrath.n
Why that limitation to ones anger2 Why
that period of flaming vapor set to punctuate
flaming diSpositions What has the sunset
got to do with ones resentful emotions? Was
1t haphazard sentiment written by Paul
without special significance9 No, no; / think
of five reasons why we should not let the
sun set before our temper sets.
First, because twelve hours is long enough
to be cross about any wrong inflicted upon
us. Nothing is SO exbausting to physical
health or mental faculty as protractei in
diligence of i'll humor. 1t racks the nervous
system. 1t hurts the digestion, it heats the
blood IL brain and heart until the whole body
Tod of,1 fbo,, n
side that, it sourS the disposition, turns one
aside from his legitimate work, expends en-
ergies that ought to be better employed, and
does us more harm than it does our antago-
MIST Paul gives us a good, wide al
!oWance of time for legitimate denunciation,
from o'clock to o'clock, but says: "Stop
thereW Watch the descending orb of dav. and
when it reaches the horizon take reef in your
disposition. Unloose your collar and cool
Off. Change the subject to something de-
hghtfully pleasant Unroll your tight fist
and shake hanCs with some one Bank up
the fires at the curfew bell Drive the
growing dog Of enmity back to its kennel.
The hours of this morning will pass by, and
the afternoon will arrive, and the sun will
begin TO set, and 1 beg you on its blazing
hea tn throw all your feuds, invectives and
satres
Other things being equal the man who pre-
rves good temper will come out ahead, An
old essayist says that the celebrated John
Henderson, of Bristol, England, was at
dining party where political exitement ran
high and the debate got angry, and while
Henderson was spanking his opponent, un-
able to answer his argument, dished glass
OF wine i'll his face, when the speaker deliber-
ately wiped the liquid from his face and said:
This, sir, is depression; now, if you please,
for the main argument" While worldly
philosophy could help but very few to such
~ ipif thn oe
help any man to such a triumph sim.
possible" You say, 81 would have either
left the table in anger or have knocked
the man down. But l have come to
believe that nothing is impossible, if God
help me, since what | saw at Beth Shan
faith cure in London, England two sum
mers ago. While the religious service was
going on Rev. Dr. Boardman, glorious man,
since gone to his heavenly rest, was telling
the score of sick people present that Christ
was there as Of old to heal all diseases, and
that If they would only believe, their sick
ness would depart. | saw woman near me,
with hand and arm twisted of rheumatism,
and her wrist was fiery with inflammation,
and it looked like those cases Of chronic
rheumatism which we haveal seen and sym,
pathized with, cases beyond all human heal
ing. AT the preachers reiteraton of the
words: "Will you believe! Do you believe9
Do you believe nowg'' heard this poor sick
woman say, with an emphasis which sounded
through the building: ~ do believe.n And
then she laid her twisted arm and hand out as
straight as your arm and hand, or mine If
had seen one rise from the dead would not
nave been much more thrilled. Since then
L believe that God will do anything in an
swer to our prayer and in answer to our
faith, and can heal our bodies, and if our
soul IS all twisted and misshapen Of revenge
and hate and inflamed with sinful proclivity,
he can straighten that also and make it we'll
and clean Aye, you will not postpone till
sundown forgiveness of enemies if you can
realize that their behavior toward you may
be put into the catalogue of the "all things'
that work together for good to those that
love God. :" | have had multitudes of friends,
but | have found in my own experience
that God so arranged it that the greatest
opportunities of usefulness that have been
opened before me were opened by my enemies
And when, years ago, they conspired against
me, that opened all Christendom to ms as a
field in which to preach the Gospel. So you
may harness your antagonists to your best
interests and compel them to draw you on to
better work and higher character. Suppose,
instead of waiting until six minutes past five
O'Clock this evening" when the sun will set,
you transact this glorious work Of forgive
ness before meridian.
Again, we ought not to let the sun 90 down
on our wrath, because we will sleep better il
we are aU peace win eVeryOody. Insomnia
is getting to he one of the most prevalent nj
disorders. How few people retire at 10
o'clock at night and sleep clear through to 8
in the morningl To relieve this disorder
narcotics and sedatives and choral and
bromide of potassium, and cocaine and in
toxicants are used, but nothing is more ini-
portant than q quiet spirit if we would win
somnolence. How is a man going to sleep
when he is in mind pursuing an enemyl With
what nervous twitch he will start out of a
dream That new plan for cornering
his foe will keep him wide awake while
the clock strikes IL, H. l, 2, 8, 4. l give
YOU an unfailinp prescription for wakeful-